


Just Ask Him

by galaxybeck (barns_bucky)



Category: The Martian (2015), The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, Prompt Fill, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 21:40:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5471675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barns_bucky/pseuds/galaxybeck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Senior Mark Watney has been crushing on (senior) Chris Beck since they were sophomores and his friends: Lewis, Vogel, and Martinez, have unfortunately suffered through his endless talk about him. Despite encouragement, he refuses to ask him out until he runs into him (literally) in the cafeteria.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Ask Him

It was a heavily guarded secret that Mark Watney, future botanist for NASA (a guy could dream, couldn’t he?), had a huge ass crush on the nurse aid, Chris Beck.

“Why don’t you just ask him out?”  
He looked over at Martinez, a frown in place because was he joking? He couldn’t just ask him out! “You’ve got to be joking.”

“Nope. Just go ask him.”

“I never see him outside of the nurse’s office-- wait, I just got an idea… why don’t I break my nose and ask him to prom while I bleed on him? So romantic, thank you!”

“Isn’t that him?”

Mark bolted upright, looking around the cafeteria before spotting him because sure enough, that was Chris Beck. “Fuck me,” he groaned out as he sunk into his chair, folding his arms across his chest as he began to pout slightly.

“What are you pouting about, this time, Mark?”

“He’s pouting about Chris Beck, again.”

“Dick,” he growled out, rolling his eyes slightly as he straightened up in his chair, thrumming his fingers along the table as he glanced over his shoulder to watch the brunette disappear into the lunchroom.

“Remind me, how long have you been pining after him?”

He slumped forward slightly, head hanging in annoyance because he was not pining! Just… admiring from afar and weeping because how could someone be that attractive? “I’m not pining!”

“What are we talking about?”

He let out a loud groan as Alex, aka Vogel, finally showed up. “Nothing. Just-- drop it, okay?” He muttered as he jumped to his feet, turning to storm off like a petulant child but instead running smack dab into another person.

“Oh… shit, are you okay?”

Fuck. He looked up and sure enough, he had bumped into Chris. “I’m fine!” He chirped, putting on a smile as he brushed himself off.  _Play it cool, Mark, play it cool._ He looked back up at the other, “What about you? Everything--” he looked down to see food smashed against his chest. Of fucking course. “Oh… shit… I’m sorry.”

“Nono, you’re fine. I wasn’t looking.”

“No, seriously, it was my fault. Let me buy you lunch to make up for it?” He offered and he felt so stupid for suggesting it, but he was the one who ran into him so it’d be a dick move on his end to not offer to make up for the lost meal.  
“I don’t want--”

“Before you say something like ‘inconvenience me’, you can stuff it. I’ll make up your decision for you and buy you lunch.”  _Play it cool! You are not playing it cool, Mark._ “Unless you really, really don’t want me to,” he began backpedaling, nervous that he might be seen as overbearing. Goddamn, Mark.

“No… uh… it’s fine.”

He watched as a grin spread across Chris’s face and he couldn’t help but smile back because his smile was so pure, so sweet. “Have I entered an alternate universe or did you really just crack a smile for me?” He watched as his head tipped to the left in confusion and a frown replaced the smile.

“What d’you mean?”

“Uhm… never mind. It was… I just… I’ve never-- you’ve never…” Pull it together, Mark! “You’ve never smiled at me-- I’m… I really like you. Do you want to go to senior prom with me?” He winced slightly, prepping himself for total rejection though he didn’t receive an immediate response. Actually, he didn’t really receive any sort of indication that Chris even heard him.

“I… I would love to, Mark, but the thing is… Beth already asked me…”

He was fine. Absolutely fine.

“... for you.”

Wait… what? He looked up at Chris, confusion written across his face because “What?” He might just kill Beth if she actually did do that or kill Chris if he was joking.

“She came to me a couple days ago and went on about how you liked me and how you wouldn’t shut up about me--”  
“That’s not true!” He interjected, suddenly wishing he didn’t know who the hell Chris Beck was.  
“There’s no need to deny it, I thought it was adorable! Anyway… yeah… she asked if I would go to prom with you because, and I quote, ‘Mark will never ask you himself’. Looks like she was wrong, though.”


End file.
